As is known in the art, in the public switched telephone network (PSTN), emergency 911 telephone service is implemented to connect emergency calls to a public safety answering point (PSAP). In a conventional implementation, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1, when a calling party 10 makes an emergency call (e.g., dials 911 in the United States of America or another emergency telephone number or code as may be the case in other countries), an end office (EO) 12 serving the calling party 10 recognizes the call as an emergency call, and routes the call over the PSTN 20 to a designated PSAP 30 serving the geographic area in which the calling party 10 is located. Traditionally, while the calling party 10 is engaged in the emergency call, the end office 12 also automatically blocks or disables a variety of telephone service features that are normally provided or otherwise available to the calling party 10. For example, commonly call waiting, three-way calling, B-party hold and/or other known telephone service features are disabled or suspended for the calling party 10 automatically by the end office 12 for the duration of the emergency call.
While it is generally desirable to disable selected telephone service features when a caller is engaged in an emergency call so as not to disrupt the emergency call, in some circumstances it may be beneficial or advantageous on a case by case basis to allow the caller to access and/or use one or more particular telephone service features. However, the traditional implementation of an emergency 911 service does not provide the flexibility to permit, on a case by case basis, the selective enabling of particular telephone service features during emergency 911 calls. Rather, in a traditional implementation, the designated features are typically blocked or disabled in every case for the entire duration of the emergency call, i.e., without a suitable mechanism in place to selectively re-enable particular features on a case by case basis as desired.
Accordingly, a new and improved service and/or system is disclosed that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.